Manager Mick McCarthy looks set to hand new loan signing Jonny Williams his Blues debut when Birmingham visit Portman Road on Saturday. The Town boss again has decisions to make regarding his frontline with David McGoldrick probably out for the rest of the season with a knee ligament injury.
McCarthy has no new injury concerns with McGoldrick and midfielder Luke Hyam, who has a hamstring problem the only players sidelined at present.
The Blues manager expects Hyam to be available next week: "It’s still the same, still the Middlesbrough game. He’ll train on Tuesday.
"Everybody else was fine today, they’ve all trained, except for Didz, of course, we tend to gloss over that one now because we know he’s injured, but everybody else is OK.”
Despite the 3-0 defeat at Leicester last week, the Town manager seems likely to stick with goalkeeper Dean Gerken and his regular back four of Luke Chambers and Aaron Cresswell at full-back and Tommy Smith and Christophe Berra at the centre of the defence.
In midfield, if McCarthy goes with a 4-4-2 formation, new signing Williams could come into the middle ahead of Cole Skuse in his usual holding position but it’s more likely that the Wales international would take one of the wide roles, probably the left where he impressed and scored for Crystal Palace’s U21s against Town on Monday. That could see Stephen Hunt drop out of the starting line-up or move to the right.
Paul Green and Jay Tabb are McCarthy’s other options for the central role alongside Skuse, while the on-loan Leeds man and Paul Anderson are the Town boss’s other likely alternatives on the right.
Up front, McCarthy will have to decide whether to partner Daryl Murphy with Frank Nouble or Paul Taylor, who impressed him in the U21s on Monday.
Alternatively, the Town boss could opt for a 4-3-3 system with Williams one of the front three along with Murphy and probably Nouble, while three of Skuse, Green, Tabb and Hunt would be the midfield.
Striker Sylvan Ebanks-Blake is likely to play some part from the bench as he works on his match fitness.
Town did the double over Birmingham last season with the win at St Andrew’s coming in McCarthy's first game in charge, while the victory in Portman Road’s final match of the campaign confirmed Championship status for another year.
"Both of them were very important, as all wins are,” McCarthy recalled. "But it was quite poignant as the first one was my first game and the other one secured Championship status.”
Birmingham have won seven games on their travels this season but only two at home, something which McCarthy says can put pressure on a manager: "It’s difficult if you’re starting to struggle at home and as the Birmingham crowd have had Premier League football over the last few years they become quite demanding and are expecting more. It can be counter-productive.
"I think they’ve got a good squad of players. I don’t seen anyone in the league who has got a bang ordinary squad of players, we’ve all probably got workmanlike squads speckled with a bit of talent.
"Chris Burke’s their real threat, Nikola Zigic can beat anything on any given day, they spent a whole chunk of money on him.
"They’ve a lad from Manchester City called Emyr Huws, who Jonny Williams knows from Wales squads. Like the rest of us, they're probably workmanlike, hard to beat, work hard and then they’ve got a little sprinkling of talent in there that can win the game for them.”
The visitors will be without left-back Mitch Hancox (ankle) and on-loan Manchester City midfielder Albert Rusnak (groin), who picked up knocks in training on Thursday.
Midfielder Callum Reilly, striker Matt Green, full-backs David Murphy and Neal Eardley (all knee), and frontman Akwasi Asante (hamstring) will also miss out.
Winger Chris Burke is OK despite being subbed during last week’s 2-1 win at Blackpool with a head injury and Brian Howard is continuing to play despite a broken little toe.
At the end of August at St Andrew’s, Christophe Berra scored his first goal in English football as the sides drew 1-1.
The Scotland international headed home before the break with Town well on top, but Burke’s deflected 76th minute goal grabbed an undeserved point for the home team.
The teams last met at Portman Road in Town’s final home game of last season in April when Carlos Edwards, Luke Chambers and Daryl Murphy were on target as the Blues finally confirmed their place in the Championship with a 3-1 win.
Edwards hammered in a stunning strike in the sixth minute, Chambers headed in the second on 17 and Murphy added the third before Burke pulled one back late on for the visitors.
The only former Blue on Birmingham’s books is midfielder Darren Ambrose but he is currently on loan with Greek side Apollon Smyrni.
Historically, the Blues have had the better of Birmingham, winning 32 times (29 in the league), drawing 13 (13) and losing 27 (21).
Town are supporting Football League sponsors Prostate Cancer UK by wearing their logo on shirts, which will subsequently be auctioned, during the game. Prostate Cancer are encouraging fans to take the Men United test.
There will also be a collection for the charity before the game, while a guest of honour will walk out with the teams and deliver the ball to the referee.
The banners designed and funded by TWTD posters will be in place in the Sir Alf Ramsey Stand for the first time.
Saturday’s referee is Keith Stroud from Hampshire, who has shown 126 yellow and seven red cards in 28 games so far this season. Stroud’s most recent Town match was the 3-2 FA Cup replay defeat at Preston when he booked four Blues and one Lilywhite.
Squad from: Gerken, Loach, Chambers, Richardson, Cresswell, Mings, Berra, Smith, Skuse, Tabb, Green, Williams, Anderson, Hunt, Edwards, Wordsworth, Murphy, Nouble, Taylor, Ebanks-Blake.
Photo: ITFC